SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdOptic, a maker of crowd-powered mobile applications, today announced that Ticketek, the leading ticketing partner to the sports and live entertainment industry in Australia and New Zealand, has launched a new App for iPhone that includes Friend Spotter™, a unique mobile feature which allows friends to locate each other instantly in a crowd using their smartphones. Australia's number-one Entertainment Events website and ticketing provider has made it possible for friends to spot each other in the stands at Ticketek events, simply by scanning the crowd through their camera viewer.

Ticketek's world-leading mobile platform already offers a complete end-to-end mobile ticketing solution, with the Ticketek mobile site and mobile ticket delivery giving the customer the option to browse, buy and deliver tickets entirely on their smartphone. Today, Ticketek adds the ability to share the live event experience with friends during the event itself, with merely a sweep of the smartphone.

"Smartphones are integral, both to event ticketing and during events themselves," said Cameron Hoy, Managing Director at Ticketek Australia. "By combining Facebook data and CrowdOptic's state-of-the-art visual augmented reality, we are the first to offer our customers this very simple yet impactful way to enhance the live event experience."

CrowdOptic's patent-pending technology platform for live events specializes in tracking dynamic activity in crowds, including everything from where friends are located in crowds, to where people in crowds are pointing their mobile phones moment to moment. The technology offers simple, intuitive visual augmented reality displays for search and discovery of fan activities.

"Visual augmented reality displays will supersede text-based search and discovery and change the way fans interact inside stadiums and arenas," said CrowdOptic CEO Jon Fisher. "We are very pleased to be working with a premier partner such as Ticketek to introduce this groundbreaking technology widely in sporting and entertainment arenas."

The Ticketek App is available for free from the Australian App Store on iPhone. For more information on Ticketek's mobile platform, visit ticketek.com.au. For more information about CrowdOptic, visit www.crowdoptic.com.

About Ticketek

Established in 1979, Ticketek is the leading ticketing partner to the sports and live entertainment industry in Australia and New Zealand. Ticketek processes over 18 million tickets to more than 13,000 events per year and provides exclusive ticketing services to Australia's premier venues. Ticketek is owned by Nine Entertainment Co., Australia's most diversified entertainment company. For more information, visit ticketek.com.au.

About CrowdOptic

CrowdOptic is a new crowd-powered "heat" signal – the next evolution of location-based services that recognizes the hottest crowd activity as it occurs. By tracking where smartphone cameras are located and where they are pointed, CrowdOptic can instantly filter mobile social media and create new opportunities for fan engagement. CrowdOptic identifies, tags and rebroadcasts the live event experience to the world, on mobile, social TV and second screens. CrowdOptic is a privately-held, venture-backed company based in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.crowdoptic.com.